Half Marathon Training Week 6 Recap and Random Thoughts

I’m more than halfway through training for half marathon #6, and I’m trying not to panic. I’ve been getting in miles, and I’ve been running strong. I’ve got two more long runs to do, a short “long run,” and then the half. Last week was Week 6 of my half marathon training, and it went a little something like this:

Monday: CrossFit.

Tuesday: 4.5 miles, with 2.5 miles of intervals thrown in for good measure.

Friday: CrossFit. Got my arse handed to me by rope climbs and wall balls. We played leapfrog, and I somehow got stuck with the tallest guy in class as my partner. Thank you, Cory.

Saturday: 6 mile long run.

Sunday: Rest.

Total: 14.5 miles, 3 CrossFit, 1 strength, 1 yoga.

I don’t know why I’m so anxious about this one. Maybe it’s because I feel all this pressure to PR after Moody Gardens. Maybe it’s because I feel like my focus has shifted from running to CrossFit. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I’m deriving a ton of pleasure from CrossFitting. I still love my runs, but I want to slow down and enjoy them. And I’m not doing that lately; it felt like a chore on Saturday. I went for a bike ride on Saturday afternoon with my older child, and I had a blast, though. So maybe there’s that. Maybe I need to try some other activities: swimming, biking. This is the part of my training cycle where I usually start breaking down mentally and want to run less.

Add in that Saturday was also the BodPod measurement, and the last thing I want to do is more cardio. I’ve dropped weight, specifically muscle. So I’m going to finish out this half marathon training cycle, and I’m going to give it my all on February 20. I’m going to take a rest day afterward full of mobility and foam rolling.

Then, I’m going to revisit my training. I don’t have any big races coming up, but I do have the Open (heavily scaled!).

Which brings me to yesterday. I had to move my long run to Tuesday, because I am doing something Saturday that would interfere, and I have to take a rest day Friday… (I will post about this Monday, I promise!) Of course, the one day I have to do a long run is rainy, 50 degrees, and just miserable. I got in 10 miles of abject misery, horizontal rain, splashing through puddles. At least I could still feel my feet.

So. Less than four weeks to go. I’ve had some strong tempo runs and strong intervals, although my time trials are all pretty disappointing. My latest long run was a squishy mess, but somewhere around mile 6 it didn’t feel so bad. I’m now taking a deep breath and focusing on what’s right in front of me: Saturday. It’s a big deal. After Saturday, one 12 miler, one six miler, some speedwork, and boom, my sixth half marathon will be in the books, for better or worse.